In the morning, that morning when
joy comes (Psalm 30:5), in the morning "when I awake"
as David declares, that morning whose dawning beams presence with the Lord, then
"I shall be satisfied with Your likeness": I shall
see God, I shall be in a form fit for seeing Him face to face (I John
3:1-4), for I shall be like Him, resurrected in a spiritual body, just as on
this earth, it was a body from the earth that was clothing, in which my spirit
dwelt!

Then with a tent, a covering eternal
in the heavens (II Corinthians 5:1ff.), not unclothed but over-coated

with the format for eternity,
then shall be the glory of the Lord,

without curse, with redemption,

without pain and suffering, with
total sanctification,

without loss, with the gain of
the Shield and the Exceedingly Great Reward (Genesis 15:1),

who is God Himself, the same who has
known His saints through all ages, and whose Gospel has shone from the first
(cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms17, TMR
Ch. 3).

Then, in that morning, "the
upright shall have dominion over them" ... Psalm 49, that grand and
sublimely clear Psalm, shows the meaning of this. Man CANNOT redeem his brother,
for redemption of a human soul is immensely costly, something which is to be
provided (Psalm 49:15), but by God alone; and once paid, it is finished, without
equal, comparison, parallel or hope (49:7-8). The matter is signalled, signed
and deliverance on a once for all basis.

If it is gone, it is past; if you
equivocate, you are lost.

As to unbelief, that secateur of
salvation, that axe of welfare, that slush-fund of sleaze, it means this:
"That is the way of those who are foolish, and of the
posterity who approve their sayings. Death shall feed on them ..."

Well, why not be realistic ? It is
not one's own idea of a game to have death feeding upon one; but then, some seem
to want this. Cutting their spirits from God, with slithering sentiments of
autocracy, of autonomy, a sort of spiritual autism, they ruin their real estate,
despise their inheritance, sell short their spirit's abode, humble their destiny
and indulge their pride. What is the good of it, the possible good of it!

"Their beauty
shall be consumed in the grave..." (Psalm 49:14). That is the upside of
it! But as for the upright, those who found in GOD ALONE their righteousness
(Psalm 71:16, Romans 3:23-27, Ephesians 2:1-12), "the
upright shall have dominion over them in the morning" (Psalm 49:14).

THREE QUESTIONS
ANSWERED

Now there are three things into
which at once to enquire. Firstly, HOW shall the upright have dominion
over them, and WHAT are the spiritual dimensions of this thing. Secondly,
WHERE shall the foolish be, that the upright should have such dominion.
Thirdly, WHO are the upright ? Let us take the last first.

Psalm 49:15 at once makes this last
point clear. It is those, each one, whose soul the Lord has REDEEMED; for it
declares of the writer, "But God will redeem my soul from
the power of the grave!"

Unlike the unredeemable foolish, who
find in anyone BUT God, their desire, where there is therefore NO HOPE, for
brother cannot just redeem brother, for all have sinned, and none is a sacrifice
fitting to cover the GAP between the doings of man and the glory of God (49:7):
the redeemed by contrast are those who are the Lord's, who have the
available Victor. HE is the GAP FILLER, the COST DEFRAYER, the REDEEMER. Who is
HE ? He is GOD, as it expressly declares. Indeed, He is set in infinite
disparity from ineffectual man! It is the Saviour (and again, ONLY GOD is the
Saviour, Isaiah 40:10-11) of Isaiah 52-53, in format of man, the actual and
living God.

They who find this redemption, they
are not subject to the final warrant of the grave, to the final doom of death,
and indeed, to the final damnation of judgment (Revelation 20, John 5:19ff.,
John 3:15-36). That is why vitality and joy, everlasting joy is upon their heads
(Isaiah 51:11), and why peace like a river is their place and the site of their
planting (Psalm 1, Isaiah 48:16ff.): in the sharpest contrast to those who
insist on using the equipment and the spirit which God has given, and yet being
in a perpetual and horrid state of divorce from their source.

In what way, however,
will those so redeemed have dominion over the foolish in the morning of
salvation's primacy, when resurrection past, the world of wonder continues in
fresh premises ?

First, in the millenium (see
preceding chapter, with also its terminal references),
there is that work, as when the twelve apostles shall be as it were on twelve
thrones (Matthew 19:28-30):

Verily I
tell you, That you which have followed Me, in the regeneration

when the Son of
man shall sit in the throne of his glory,

you also shall
sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And every one
that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or
wife,
or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold,
and shall inherit everlasting life.
But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first."

Here when ALL the saints come with
the Lord to the earth which once had Him stricken, with the Word of God in
flaming purity (Zechariah 14:5, I Thessalonians 3:13), like rejoicing soldiers
coming to their triumph, there will be a cleavage infinite and vast from the
denizens of the earth then left; for these who come are now resurrected, whom no
more pain can touch, nor sorrow.

Disposed as the Lord sees fit, His
people perceive and do as He would; and the manifest ruin and exposure of the
crass wickedness and corruption of mind, spirit and body which characterises
this world's ways will be in deep contrast. It is to be noticed that the
apostles are shown in their function in the text above, and the principles apply
more rigorously to many. So do the righteous shine forth as the sun, with the
spiritually dispossessed no longer holding the apparent reins of this earth, but
exposed where dark, for the darkness they have, like so many walking X-rays!
Duplicity cannot prevail, and they shall not hurt or destroy in all His holy
mountain (Isaiah 65:25).

In what other ways would the upright
have dominion over them in the morning ? It would be, perhaps in
the sense of Isaiah 66:24, where the 'pit' is seen as if topographically
near to Jerusalem in the allegorical format here displayed (for in fact there is
an impassible gulf - (Matthew 16:26ff.). Here there is the attestation of the
relished intimacy of the saints with the Lord, and to those in such blessedness
there comes the abhorrence at the departure from the living God, where
this is perceived graphically (cf. Daniel 7:13-14,26-27, 12:1ff.). The restless
ruin that is exposed is outside Christ, and it is for those who by ignoring or
seeking to delete Him, have divested from themselves the whole thrust of the
mercy of God; while the kingdom is given to the people,
"the saints of the most high".

Again you see it in Revelation 22:5,
where in the light entire and whole, "There shall be no
night there. They need no lamp nor light of sun, for the Lord God gives
them light. And they shall reign forever and ever," there where the
"Lamb is its Light" and "the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb are its Temple." In such ways, the dominion comes with the
Director, in whom is the rule of reality and the life of love.

Further, there is the sense that
after all this world's vain philosophy has had its vain outcomes, that in the
plenitude of truth and peace, the carnal wars of this fallen world its badge and
testimony of guilt, and the spiritual wars which it did not fight its
indictment, then the redeemed rule and have victory most manifest IN THE
TRUTH. Millenia have sufficed to indicate the folly of vanity, and the spiritual
slums of seeking to use what God has made for Himself, instead for your own
self, your world, your culture, multi-cultural or other, your wish, your
dictates of your own heart!

The upright bear rule in the Lord
over all the slithering valleys of corruption, all the sideways and all the
shambles of ruin, at one time so loud in its own proclamation, now exposed and
this for ever, as not only base, but abased.

Yet what is the sense in which the
REDEEMED of the Lord, who know how vain is the dominion of the Gentile nations
in their power and glory, their pride and their vainglorious self-elevation,
their unserviceable preoccupation with their own will and way, can have DOMINION
over the others ? Did not Christ expressly state in Matthew 20:25-28, the
contrast in style between sovereign sinners and serviceable saints ?

"But Jesus called them unto him, and said, You know that the princes of the
Gentiles
exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon
them.

"But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you,
let him be your servant; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be
your slave: Even as the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and
to give his life a ransom for many."

You see there the explicit and vast
contrast. How then could the upright have dominion ? It lies in the way it is
done. Authority is vested first of all in CHRIST, and that not in mere name but
in fact, so that HIS WORD rules. Secondly, look at the actual Peter (not the
fraudulently re-created lord of the Romanists), who made it clear that he saw
himself as an elder who, with the other elders, should not act "as being lords"
over those "entrusted" to them, but as
"examples to the flock".

As Paul put it, he is there
"not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow-workers for
your joy: for by faith you stand" (II Corinthians 1:24). Certainly, if
there is outrageous departure from the faith, the apostle Paul will come in the
authority of the Lord, but it is not as PAUL and his doctrine, but in terms of
what is written, of the book of the Lord and in the strength of the Lord, that
any such action would be taken (II Corinthians 13:7-10). Nothing, says the
apostle, can he do against the truth; but it is for the truth alone that the
power of God is given. He serves with them, and does not lord it over them, for
ONE is Lord, even Jesus Christ.

Per se, he has no desire but to be
faithful and to serve under ONE living Master, to whom all must individually
relate by faith.

Thus there is indeed authority; but
it is neither self-willed, nor is it casuistical, far less casual. It has no
butt, no victim; for its object is to be subservient in all things to the
actualities and realities of Christ, not in terms of some super-human and
imaginary authority of one's own place, for ONE is your Master and ALL of you
are brothers (as Christ put it in Matthew 23:8-10). There is NO pretence and no
pretension.

What sort of 'dominion' then or rule
is there which has no selfish or self-centred or self-augmenting or
self-imagined glory or greatness, but which serviceably seeks to apply what the
Lord is and wants, with humility and meekness, in order to help their joy and to
service their needs: all being of One, who alone has power and dominion and
authority ?

It is a derivative dominion, in
which love is the atmosphere, grace is the governor, truth is the impeller,
reality is the ground, service is the function; but the presence of the Lord is
there, so that His will is implemented. It is not a free love-in in spirit or
body or mind; it is a liberty of love where the truth is known and not in
question, and where service is deft, diligent and delicate. That is the spirit
of it. The really helpful then become the really serviceable, not the really
lordly; but there is NO SCOPE for sedition, since the truth is itself in
dominion, BECAUSE it IS the truth. Christ is Lord as the life, the way and the
truth.

The clouds of vaporous and vapid
thought have by now departed, and the sun of righteousness having arisen with
healing in His wings (Malachi 4), His presence upon the whole earth, even in the
millenium, righteousness rules with a flair and a flavour, as the perfumes of
Spring in its season. This is the ruling way, the sway of righteousness, the
fragrance of virtue, and now it is manifest.

This is the joy of spiritual service
in which one may even now participate; but then, with the earth no more appalled
with the wry faith of unbelief, there is the unclouded custom and the unruffled
magnificence of the spiritual Spring where the nectar of truth is not despised,
and the ways of peace are found on all sides (Micah 4, Isaiah 59), until the
earth itself is removed and the eternity of the blessed proceeds (Revelation
20:1ff., Matthew 24:35).